Friday, October 21, 2016

This Child Here: Olya

Lifted from Dr Robert Gamble's public email. Read the story Train to Vinnytsia, link below, about his trip to bring her back safely after she ran away.

This girl on the
left is Olya. She was ten or eleven in that picture. The next image is her at
thirteen.

That's when she left
the shelter called The Way Home where she was staying in Odessa, Ukraine and
disappeared along with another girl and a boy. That was 2007. A month
passed, then I remember an all night train ride to a city called Vinnytsia and
an early morning bus ride to remote village half an hour away, where we found
her in a cabin with less room inside than your normal living room. The
kids came back with us.

This third picture
was given to me on my last trip to Ukraine. It is her today, eight years later.

The train to
Vinnetsia was a remarkable moment in my ten years of directing the work of This
Child Here in Ukraine. Seeing this photo reminded me how the right kind of love
and attention can help youth and children grow with grace into adulthood.
Without the effort we put forth, you might be looking at a very different face.

We do not Believe in
Ourselves until someone
Reveals that deep inside us
Something is valuable,
Worth listening to, worthy
Of our touch, sacred to our touch.
Once we believe in ourselves we can
Risk curiosity, wonder, Spontaneous
Delight, or any experience that reveals
The human spirit.
e.e. cummings

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We have met the Enemy

Proud to be Ukrainian

About Me

Father, husband, agricultural consultant, beef cattle specialist, dog owner, reluctant gardener, amateur photographer, history buff and wandering soul who has at last found home and happiness in Ukraine. Fully registered as a permanent resident, who unfortunately looks like his passport picture, I am here for the foreseeable future, having married the “only woman in Ukraine who does not want to move to Canada”. I do miss my kids terribly, though Tanya’s family including two granddaughters make up for it somewhat.